


Tear You Apart

by secretsofthesky



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Northside Jughead Jones, Southside Serpent Betty Cooper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:09:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29909175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretsofthesky/pseuds/secretsofthesky
Summary: No one was going to stop her.Not Cheryl. Not Veronica. Not Jughead.He may have been able to make her toes curl with just a look but he was one of them.The lines had been drawn. The war had officially begun.
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Tear You Apart

**Author's Note:**

> *repost*

Grabbing her soda from the vending machine and popping it open, Betty took a long drink as she walked to the small table on the far side of the noisy room.

She jumped to the side when a ball zoomed past her, nearly hitting her in the head as two obnoxious jocks threw it back and forth as if the cafeteria was their own personal football field. A few people turned to glance at her and whisper behind their hands as she straightened her jacket and her glare had their eyes widening as they quickly looked away. 

"How is she?" Toni’s voice drifted over to her as she approached their lunch table and kicked a chair to the side, sitting on top of the table instead to face the large room. 

Betty grabbed an apple from Toni’s tray and took a loud bite, chewing for a moment before replying. "Shitty," she responded, thinking about her sister as her eyes found the table she was searching for, a sea of Letterman jackets and styled hair crowding around it. 

It had only been a week since Southside was forced to merge with Riverdale High, and those five days had already been disastrous - though if she were being honest it’s not like she had expected them to go  _ smoothly _ anyway. She and the Serpents knew they weren’t going to be greeted with open arms and they would - as they were almost anywhere they went - be  _ unwanted _ . Not that they couldn’t handle that; living on the Southside gave you thick skin and it wasn’t as if any of them had planned on joining the football team or running for student council. 

They were there to finish their education and get out while ruffling the least amount of feathers as possible. The plan was just to stay under the radar and bide their time.

The only hope Betty had for anything different was for her sister. While Betty had been blessed with their mothers' hardness and resilience, Polly was different, and even though she was the older sister, Betty had always been the one protecting her. Polly was too kind, too trusting, too soft. She wasn’t built for the Southside and never had been. 

Out of any of them, Betty had thought Polly would actually thrive in Riverdale High - maybe earn a scholarship, make some friends that weren’t Serpents. 

It hadn’t exactly happened like she’d hoped though. 

Her sister had an angelic beauty that turned heads wherever she went, so it wasn’t surprising that she had told Betty on their first day that she had caught the eye of Jason Blossom. All giddy and love sick, she had recounted how he sat with her in studyhall and they’d talked the whole class before exchanging numbers.

Of course Betty had been wary, though she didn’t voice her concerns at the time. It was nice seeing Polly so happy and what harm could come from a silly crush anyways?

_ A lot _ , she realized the following day.

As soon as Jason’s sister Cheryl and her best friend Veronica had found out about Jason's crush on a southsider, they’d done everything in their power to squash it - including spreading a disgusting rumor about her sister. 

The can in her hand started to collapse as her fist tightened at the memory of hearing it in the halls the day before. Polly had been up all night crying and had refused to come to school that day because of it - missing a day for the first time since she was a child.

_ Too soft _ , Betty thought, she’d always been too damn soft. 

“So what are we going to do?” 

Toni’s voice broke her from her thoughts and Betty turned to her, meeting the pink haired girl's angry gaze. 

“I’m going to make their life a living hell,” Betty shrugged simply before turning back to stare at the table Jason Blossom was sitting at. “That redhead over there,” she motioned to another boy sitting opposite him, “That’s the brunette's boyfriend, right?” 

Toni glanced up, “Ex, actually. I guess they’re on and off again all the time but are currently off - and much to Veronica’s dismay.” Toni told her before quickly adding, “And the only reason I know this is because Fangs is a damn gossip hound and apparently found his equivalent here in the form of a kid named Kevin.” 

A small smile made its way to Betty’s lips. “ _ Much to her dismay _ ,” she echoed. “Is that so?” 

Without another thought, she slid off the table and pulled off her leather jacket, revealing the black lacy crop top she wore underneath and then ran a hand through her hair - letting it fall over one shoulder. 

She heard Toni begin to protest but didn’t pay her any mind as she made her way across the cafeteria, now receiving looks for an entirely different reason, before arriving at the jocks table and quickly sliding into the empty seat next to her target. 

“Hey,” she greeted, well aware of how everyone at the table stopped talking but she ignored them, keeping her eye on the boy next to her, tipping her head to the side and sending him a flirty look. “I’m Betty.” 

She watched as he blinked, clearly surprised, his eyes widening momentarily before a grin stretched across his face. “Hey, I’m Archie.”

“ _ Archie _ ,” Betty drew the name out, lowering her voice to barely a whisper, the name sounding far too sensual for the middle of a noisy cafeteria and knew that she had succeeded with getting his attention when his eyes darkened. “What a cute name. It’s nice to meet you,  _ Archie _ .”

He brought a hand up to run through his hair, quickly clearing his throat before rubbing his palms against his jeans. “You too. How are you liking Riverdale High?”

Betty forced a smile to her lips as she answered him, playing a part, keeping his attention. 

He replied to her question about extracurriculars but she just tuned him out, taking the moment of him talking about football to glance around the table. When her eyes met Jason’s, he quickly looked down at his lunch, and she while she had zero sympathy for him - she wondered if maybe most of the chaos was his sisters doing. 

She turned back to Archie as he finished speaking, a smile moving to her lips as she nodded and let her eyes move over his face, his cheeks turning red under her gaze. 

“I would love to see you play,” she cooed, tipping her head to the side and sending him a wink. 

She quickly tuned him out again when he began rambling about their next game and her eyes narrowed as she felt the heat of a stare. Her head slowly turned to the other side of the table again, instantly meeting blue. Dark blue. A stark contrast to the royal color of the letterman jacket he wore. 

“That’s Jughead,” she heard Archie introduce when he followed her gaze and she turned back to her target momentarily to regain her bearings before slowly looking back at his friend. 

He was handsome, even though his face seemed to be made of stone as he watched her, eyes narrowed and the glint in them telling her he saw through her facade.

She swallowed slowly before shooting him a grin. “Nice to meet you, Jughead.” 

He didn’t reply, just nodded, eyes not leaving her and she shifted in her chair, suddenly feeling hot as his gaze left flames licking over her skin, their stare off causing her heart to pound in her chest. 

An annoyed throat clearing behind her and the shrill words that followed it had her shoulders squaring. 

“You’re in my seat.”

Betty fought the urge to roll her eyes as she stood, plastering a look of apology on her face before she turned and met the eyes of the girl she’d been hoping would show up. 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know,” she told Veronica, stepping to the side and allowing the brunette to slide into the seat she had just vacated.

She gave the girl props for never letting the smile leave her face, even though she saw the evil lurking behind her brown eyes. “Well, now you do.” her voice may have sounded sweet but her statement was anything but.

Betty saw right through her, and it was what was not being said that had her moving to slide onto Archie’s lap.

The whole table gasped, and she wasn’t oblivious to the fact that the entire cafeteria seemed to quiet at once. 

She wrapped an arm around Archie’s neck, crossing her legs as he moved his chair back from the table to accommodate her. 

“Archiekins!”

Veronica’s outburst had both Betty and Archie turning to her as she stood, nearly tipping her tray over in the process.

“What?” Betty asked innocently, “You said that was your seat but Archie and I weren’t done talking yet. I had to sit  _ somewhere _ . Archie’s lap just looked  _ so _ welcoming.”

Veronica drew in a deep breath, her glare intensifying. “Archiek…” she started again but Betty cut her off. 

“You said you have gym last block right?” Betty turned to Archie, ignoring the fact that everyone was looking at her, though one stare from a certain boy seemed to be burning into her more than the others. 

Archie nodded, clearly not knowing what to do but smiling regardless at the girl in his lap. “Yeah.”

Betty moved her mouth to his ear, her eyes lifting to Veronica’s threateningly. “We’ll finish talking then,” she told Archie, her eyes never leaving his exes as she ran a hand over the back of his neck, feeling the goosebumps form before standing and winking at Veronica once before walking away - the whispers of the rest of the students in the cafeteria following her as well as Veronica’s angry voice.

She grabbed her jacket and sent Toni a look before exiting the large room and making her way out of the school and over to the bleachers surrounding the track field. 

She was two drags in when she felt him and turned to watch him lean against the pillar across from her to light his own cigarette. 

_ Jughead. _

“Archie’s a good guy.” 

His voice was deep, moving over her as he blew out a stream of smoke, his eyes looking black under the shade of the bleachers. 

“He seems it,” she replied, meeting his gaze. She wasn’t lying. He met her eyes when he spoke instead of staring at her chest and even when she had been in his lap, he hadn’t taken that as an opportunity to grope her. He had seemed like an okay guy - and for a moment she regretted what she had been doing but then the image of Polly crying quickly reminded her why he was a necessary pawn. 

“He doesn’t deserve to be a toy you use to get back at his ex.” 

Betty grinned, even as anger flared. “And my sister doesn’t deserve the rumor that’s being spread around school about her.” 

She watched as he nodded, finishing his cigarette before throwing it to the ground and stomping it out. “Cheryl and Veronica are... _vicious._ Whatever you’re planning won’t be easy.” He probably meant for it to sound like a warning, but she could hear the concern in his voice and she wasn’t sure who it was for.

Betty just shrugged, “It’d be boring if it was easy.”

He smirked then, a quick tilt of the lips before he started back towards the school. 

“Are you one as well?” 

He stopped, turning around to meet her gaze, shoving his hands deep in his pockets as he tilted his head. “Am I what?”

Betty threw her cigarette to the ground, leaning back against her pillar and crossing her arms. “A  _ good _ guy?”

He grinned then, and she felt it like a punch to the gut. She watched as his eyes moved over her, taking in every inch of her body before lifting to meet her gaze again. His tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip before he spoke. “Not even a little bit,  _ Betty _ .” 

She watched him walk away, her breath coming out shaky at his parting line, heat pooling between her legs at the way his eyes seemed to stake claim on her body. 

She reached into her coat pocket for another cigarette, inhaling deeply to calm her nerves as she planned her next move. 

Archie may be a good guy, but he would also be the perfect pawn and when she was done with what she was going to do, they would all regret the day they decided to mess with her sister.

No one was going to stop her.

Not Cheryl. Not Veronica. Not _Jughead_. 

He may have been able to make her toes curl with just a look but he was one of  _ them _ . 

He was the enemy and the lines had been drawn. 

The war had officially begun. 


End file.
